The New Manchester — Local services in Fresno

I remember going shopping at Manchester Center as a child. There were lots of stores and it was very vibrant. Then.. Fashion Fair was built, people took their shopping north and Manchester Center has never recovered.

The last time I was at Manchester Center was in 2015 when I took an exam to get hired by the State of California. A lot of the Center has been turned over to CalTrans, Dept. of Motor Vehicles, Fresno Adult School and a private, for profit college. It doesn't appear the elementary charter school is still in business.

Manchester Center does not have any curb appeal.

The parking lot is in desperate need of repaving and having new parking spaces painted. There are a number of numbered parking stalls with signs stating they are "reserved." I laughed and parked there anyway. The striping was so faded, I defy anyone to prove they are used today or have been used in the past two decades for their designated purpose.

New owners came in and a lot of publicity given to a new vision. Well, on my recent visit, I don't see any changes and, in fact, the Center looks worse. The bathroom on the second floor has been removed - and not replaced. The food court has been boarded up for years. The second floor seems mostly dedicated to government offices, all of which were closed on a weekday afternoon.

The first floor only contains a lackluster handful of stores with dark lighting as if they are forced to appear open. The lighting overall was dark and the air conditioning barely cooling the area. It was very depressing and almost sinister with the low lighting. I cannot recommend even utilizing the interior space for walking.

The current owners would best be served by renaming the center, The Manchestet Government Center and stop pretending it is a shopping center.

It appears that other than using parking spaces to build a Habit Burger franchise, no improvements have been made by the current owners.

The sign at the entrance demanding masks be worn is laughable. You would have to have customers who could possibly be close to one another to infect others.

Either the owners do not gave a vision, are broke or only bought Manchester Center as a...

The movie theatre is the only reason I go over there anymore. That and deli delicious, Panda Express, and Starbucks when I'm hungry before the movie starts. They're trying to give the mall a make over to make it look modern and up-to-date. However, a fresh coat of paint will not fill the multitudes of vacant shops. Sears is gone too. The remaining stores are ones that no one really wants to go to. Meaning that all the major, name-brand stores and restaurants that you would want to see say mall pulled out of for whatever reason are no longer there. Stores like JC Penney, Victoria Secret, and so on. The food court is a joke. Walking through the halls, it's like a ghost town, the beginning of a bad zombie movie, poor quality little Mexico, the smell of desperation in the air, with the sense of complete failure and impending doom. This mall has huge potential. Change of management maybe? Increased security: internal/external to deter the homeless and panhandlers (you know, the ones who deter customers from coming inside in the first place). Give attention to landscape up keep. Again, maintenance and repair. Increase the attractions. Covid isn't helping anything. I truly hope this place can turn around to become as it one was. It's not a very comfortable...

The remodeling project has slowed due to "the ever continuing (or never ending) covid incident" but,,,,,,the portion(s) that have been done are really nice. The addition of Ross & DD's (in the old Sears building) has really brought a new customer base to the shopping center/mall, unfortunately very few of these customers are venturing into the mall building as the new store additions are only accessable from the parking lot and not connected to the mall. Being a small business owner myself, I realize the crucial importance of foot traffic in order to sustain a business. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TAKING A LOOK INSIDE THE NEWER MANCHESTER MALL, You might find a shop or store inside that has something you want or need, and you might also decide to rent/lease a space for your own retail/wholesale sales, repair shop, office or professional business needs. I quite sure that the Mall people are more than willing to negotiate terms with potential clients as they also have an overhead that has to be met and with both of their anchor stores vacant they NEED businesses to make...